Public Access Policy Overview

The NIH Public Access Policy ensures that the public has access to the published results of NIH funded research. It requires scientists to submit final peer-reviewed journal manuscripts that arise from NIH funds to the digital archive PubMed Central (PMC)upon acceptance for publication. To help advance science and improve human health, the Policy requires that these papers are accessible to the public on PMC no later than 12 months after publication.

If you are trying to go back and ensure older articles are compliant, it can be difficult to determine when an article was accepted for publication and if the Policy applies to the paper. Below are some strategies for figuring this out and what to do with the citation in My Bibliography.

If you have a copy of the journal agreement in your files or email from your publisher, check when your manuscript was ACCEPTED FOR PUBLICATION (not when it was submitted or when it was published)

If you cannot find the agreement, search for a copy of the article:

Put PMID number into PubMed search box (you can also use single citation matcher with author name, year, etc.)

Make sure it is the correct citation

Click on full text link

View PDF version: likely locations for acceptance information are below abstract, at bottom of first page, after conclusion with author information, at the end of references, or occasionally in a box along the side of the first page; every journal is different.

Cannot find the acceptance date in the PDF of the article?

Check the PubMed citation – use the PMID to search for the article, as above

Change the Display setting (left hand side) to MEDLINE

Scroll down towards bottom of data to the PHST field (publication history field)

See if you find the PHST code and a listing of when article was submitted and accepted for publication

DO NOT use the dates in EDAT, MHDA, CRDT fields, as these are the NLM processing dates

Example of correct fields to use:

PHST- 2008/01/03 [received]

PHST- 2008/04/17 [revised]

PHST- 2008/04/27 [accepted]

For all of the above:

If accepted for publication BEFORE April 7, 2008 – it does NOT fall under policy BUT you must change its status in MyBibliography (MyNCBI)

If accepted for publication ON or AFTER April 7, 2008 – it IS COVERED by the policy and you must submit your authors manuscript through the NIH Manuscript submission system

NIH Manuscript Submission System (NIHMS)

Authors (or someone they delegate) can submit the final peer-reviewed manuscript (not the final published version) to the NIH Manuscript Submission System (NIHMS). Submitting to NIHMS is the only way an author can submit manuscripts to be added into PMC, if the journal publisher doesn’t deposit it for them.

NIHMS provides a number of great tutorials and and FAQ page to help you get started using the system.

Compliance Process Diagram

The diagram below depicts the overall process involved in the NIH Public Access Policy. It illustrates what systems are involved and the interactions between those systems. The steps a PI/author needs to take are illustrated, with those that are typically problematic highlighted in red.

Useful materials

If the publisher’s policy does not allow deposit, attach this Letter to the_Publisher (pdf) from the UC Office of Technology Transfer. Another option is to modify the publisher’s copyright transfer agreement to retain the right to make the article available in PMC by attaching this NIH Addendum form (pdf). If you are unable to determine if you have permission to submit the final peer-reviewed manuscript to NIHMS, you will need to contact the publisher to ask for permission. We have created a template (below) you can use.

Checklist for Authors
Offers recommended steps related to the NIH Public Access Policy for authors to take from prior to article submission to after publication. Created by the UC Davis CTSC.

Most importantly for anyone awarded NIH funding, My NCBI has a tool named My Bibliography. My Bibliography, allows you to save your citations either directly from PubMed or by manually entering them. Once citations are in My Bibliography you can easily:

See whether your publications comply with the NIH Public Access Policy

Start the compliance process for journal articles

Associate your publications to awards

My Bibliography: Public Access Compliance (Video)

Link My NCBI & eRA Commons

Create New My NCBI Account

Principal Investigators and PD’s must use My NCBI’s “My Bibliography” tool to manage their professional bibliographies (as of July 23, 2010, see the full notice here).

You can sign in with accounts you already use like Google, your UC Davis login or your NIH eRA Commons account.

If you have never used My NCBI we strongly recommend clicking on ‘Sign in with NIH login’ and logging in with your eRA Commons login to create your account.

Signing in through one of the Partner Organizations will automatically sync your My NCBI Account, so the easiest option to choose is to sign in via your NIH & eRA Commons account.

Link My NCBI & eRA Commons Accounts

If you already have a My NCBI Account, you need to link your account to your eRA Commons account.

Log into My NCBI

Click on your login name in the top right.

Then click on the ‘Change’ button for ‘Linked Accounts’.

• From the list of ‘Login Account Options’, scroll down and choose ‘NIH & eRA Commons’ and then log into your eRA Commons account.

If you have problems

If you receive an error message when trying to link accounts you may have linked too many accounts already. You will need to contact NCBI directly to have them manually link your eRA Commons account with your current My NCBI account.

From within a particular article record or the search results, click on the ‘Send to’ drop-down.

Click on ‘My Bibliography’ and then the ‘Add to My Bibliography’ button that appears.

NOTE: You are responsible for ensuring that any NIH funded publication for which you were either an author OR the PI of the grant. This means you may need to include articles for which you were not an author but which were supported by a grant you are a PI on.

Using EndNote to Create a RIS File for Upload to MyBibliography

Here are the steps for creating a RIS format file from an EndNote Library to be used for uploading citations into an eRA Commons linked MyBibliography account:

1. In style menu, select RefMan (RIS) Export style. If it is not already listed as an option, find it in “Select Another Style.”

2. In EndNote Library menu, select File–>Export, with the following settings:

Save as type: Text File (*.txt)

Export style: RefMan (RIS) Export

3. Rename the *.txt file manually by appending *.ris to the file name

4. Upload the .ris file into NCBI MyBibliography

Add Delegates

Use the ‘Delegate’ feature to share the work with others in your lab, assistants, or with librarians.

From within a particular article record or the search results, click on the ‘Send to’ drowpdown.

Click on ‘My Bibliography’ and then the ‘Add to My Bibliography’ button that appears.

The ‘Other Citations” option is for grant PIs; to be used for publications that cite your grant, but are not authored by you.

NOTE: You are responsible for ensuring that any NIH funded publication for which you were either an author OR the PI of the grant. This means you may need to include articles for which you were not an author but which were supported by a grant you are a PI on.

If the article was a conference proceeding or editorial (i.e. not peer-reviewed) it is exempt.

If you are going to start Method C (submit it to NIHMS) you will need to upload the final peer-reviewed manuscript (this is not the final pdf the journal published).

Assign Awards

You should assign the correct awards to each citation in your My Bibliography.

The “My awards” provides the list of awards associated with the PI’s eRA Commons profile.

The “Other awards” section displays those awards that are not associated with the PI’s eRA Commons profile, but have been linked to citations in the My Bibliography collection.

NIH Manuscript Submission System (NIHMS)

Need Publisher Permission?

If you are unable to determine if you have permission to submit the final peer-reviewed manuscript to NIHMS, you will need to contact the publisher to ask for permission. We have created a template you can use.

NIH Manuscript Submission System (NIHMS)

Authors (or someone they delegate) can submit the final peer-reviewed manuscript (not the final published version) to the NIH Manuscript Submission System (NIHMS). Submitting to NIHMS is the only way an author can submit manuscripts to be added into PMC, if the journal publisher doesn’t deposit it for them.

NIHMS provides a number of great tutorials and an FAQ page to help you get started using the system, including

This video (9:48) gives you detailed help in submitting, reviewing, and approving your manuscript in the NIHMS (NIH Manuscript Submission) system. The NIHMS supports deposit of manuscripts into PubMed Central (PMC) as required by the public access policies of NIH and other participating funding agencies.

NIHMS Approvals

Instructions for authors and PIs who have been notified via e-mail that a submission has been initiated on their behalf

or…

then…

…and then…

Instructions for authors and PIs who have been notified via e-mail that the PMC-ready version of their manuscript is ready for final review.

Claim a NIHMS Record

How can I take over Reviewer responsibilities for a submission in NIHMS?

If a submission has become stalled in the NIHMS process due to inaction by the assigned Reviewer, another author or PI associated with the NIHMS record can request to take over Reviewer responsibilities:

On your Manuscript List page, click the Stalled tab to view the stalled records currently associated with your account.

If the record is in a state that requires Reviewer action, a “claim” button will appear in the Status column and lower right-hand corner of the Manuscript Summary page (which is accessible by clicking on the manuscript title). Click the button to initiate your request.

On the next page, select “Confirm” to indicate that you are an author (or PI) on the manuscript and would like to take over Reviewer responsibilities.

If the currently assigned Reviewer does not act on the submission within one week of your request, the manuscript will be moved to your attention in your Manuscript List to allow you to take action on the submission.

If you would like to take over Reviewer responsibilities for a record that is not stalled in the NIHMS process, please contact the Help Desk with your request.

Answers to Common Questions

Q. The journal I published in is listed as a Method D publisher, but it has been 3 months since it was accepted and My Bibliography is telling me it is not compliant (there is no NIHMS or PMC ID number).

A. No matter what method the journal is listed as it is ultimately the author/PI’s responsibility to ensure the article is submitted to PMC. If the journal/publisher has not submitted the article after 3 months following acceptance for publication, contact them and ask why they haven’t. In the meantime, go ahead and submit the final peer-reviewed manuscript to the NIHMS System (instructions). If the publisher does so later, it will over-ride your submission, but this will ensure you are in compliance.

Q. I need to submit to the NIHMS system, but I can’t find the final peer-reviewed manuscript? Can’t I just download the pdf copy from the journals website and submit that?

A. Unfortunately, that would be against copyright law. If you are unable to find the final version of the manuscript (with peer-reviewed edits but not the final copy-editing formats), and none of your co-authors have a copy either, we recommend that you contact the publisher and explain your problem. They may be able to supply a copy that you could use.

Q. I am the PI for a large teaching grant and am not an author on many of the publications that result from that funding. Do I need to include all of those citations and ensure they are compliant?

A. Yes. As the PI you are responsible for ensuring all articles that are directly funded from that grant are compliant, whether or not you are an author.

Q. One of my articles has a NIHMS ID number but has never been added into PMC and is past the 3 month deadline for needing a PMCID number. What is wrong and how can I fix it?

A. This is probably happening because whoever was entered into the NIHMS System as the reviewer has not responded to a request to review and approve the submission. When publishers or delegates submit manuscripts to the NIHMS system they will select an author of PI to receive emails asking for approval of what was submitted. If that person does not receive the email and follow the steps to approve the submission it will never make it into PMC. Check with the PI or your co-authors to see if anyone received any message from NIHMS. Finally, you can request that the responsibility be transferred to you.

Q. I have an article that was published in 2008 that is listed as being non-compliant. Would it not fall under the Policy because it is from 2008? Do I need to do anything?

A. For any article published since 2008 that has been linked to NIH funding, you will need to take some action. For articles published in 2008 it is possible that they were accepted for publication prior to the April 7th date and therefore do not fall under the policy. However, you need to check to confirm the acceptance date; if it does not fall under the policy, you will need to use My Bibliography to edit the status of the citation to notify NIH of the reason why the article does not need to be compliant. See these detailed instructions on how to find acceptance dates and to update the status of a citation.

NIH Webinar 3/5/15

Outlines how to use My NCBI to report public access policy compliance for NIH grant holders.
Topics include the NIH Public Access Policy, NIHMS and PubMed Central submissions, creating My NCBI accounts, My Bibliography to report compliance to eRA Commons, and SciENcv to create biosketches.

NIH Notices

Notice Number: NOT-OD-13-042For non-competing continuation grant awards with a start date of July 1, 2013 or beyond:
1) NIH will delay processing of an award if publications arising from it are not in compliance with the NIH public access policy.
2) Investigators will need to useMy NCBI to enter papers onto progress reports. Papers can be associated electronically using the RPPR, or included in the PHS 2590 using the My NCBI generated PDF report.
Please see NOT-OD-12-160 for more details.

With this Notice, NIH informs grantees that in Spring, 2013, at the earliest, NIH will delay processing of non-competing continuation grant awards if publications arising from that award are not in compliance with the NIH public access policy. The award will not be processed until recipients have demonstrated compliance. This change will take effect in tandem with NIH requiring the use of the Research Performance Progress Report (RPPRs) for all Streamlined Non-competing Award Process (SNAP) and Fellowship awards in the Spring of 2013 (see NIH NOT-OD-12-142).

Update: The following update relating to this announcement has been issued:
January 10, 2013 – See Notice NOT-OD-13-017. eRA Commons Users Can Now Generate a Publications Report for the PHS 2590 with My NCBI.
November 16, 2012 – See Notice NOT-OD-12-160. Upcoming Changes to Public Access Policy Reporting Requirements and Related NIH Efforts to Enhance Compliance.
Release Date: June 10, 2010
Issued by National Institutes of Health (NIH), (http://www.nih.gov)

Transition of Bibliography Management to My NCBI
Over the course of their scientific careers, program directors and principal investigators (PD/PIs) create and maintain extensive professional bibliographies, which include publications resulting from or in support of their funded research grants. PD/PIs registered in eRA Commons have been able to use the publications page of their personal profiles in Commons as a repository for their publications. NIH is now providing Commons users with a more efficient, accurate and user-friendly way to manage their professional bibliographies, associate publications with their grant awards, and ensure compliance with the NIH Public Access Policy.

eRA Commons has partnered with the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) to link NCBI’s personal online tool, “My NCBI,” to Commons. My NCBI offers an online portal—“My Bibliography”—for users to maintain and manage a list of all of their authored works, such as journal articles, manuscripts accepted for publication, books, and book chapters. As of April 2010, linking a Commons account to a new or existing My NCBI account allows references saved in My Bibliography to automatically appear in users’ Commons accounts.

As of July 23, 2010, PD/PIs will be unable to enter citations manually into eRA Commons and must use My NCBI’s “My Bibliography” tool to manage their professional bibliographies.